Creation of visual long-term memory

Currently, it is not known by which mechanisms novel visual representations are stored in long-term memory (LTM). Here we report evidence that visual working memory (WM) plays an important role in the formation of visual LTM. By varying exposure times and perceptual difficulty of the stimuli, we find that the rate-limiting factor constraining storage in LTM is the amount of information that can be simultaneously kept in WM, whereas the time needed to store this information into LTM is constant irrespective of the size of the WM content. These results support the hypothesis that visual WM serves as a gate for the storage of information into LTM.     

Personal Construct Psychology in Preservice Teacher Education: The Path Toward Reflexivity

In times of rapid changes, it is necessary to prepare teachers to be agents of education reform and thus educate them for reflective practice. However, prospective teachers in Serbia rarely have the opportunity to reflect on personal constructs of the teaching profession and their own practice. With the aim of supporting prospective teachers to become reflective practitioners and persons-as-scientists, we organized “alternative lectures” as part of the compulsory study course for future teachers. Within four encounters with four groups of 8 to 10 student teachers, we applied three techniques, developed within frames of personal construct psychology. Modifications of the technique “river of experience,” Career Rivers, enabled student teachers to reflect on the past and reveal constructs that guided previous actions in the professional field. Two self-characterizations, one portraying them as teachers and another portraying them as specialists in a different profession (in accordance with their education), made their constructions of future jobs more permeable. Through the combination of the perceiver element grid and perceiver self grid, they were encouraged to enter the role relationship with pupils and community. Although it raised new questions, this cooperative enterprise resulted in the reduction of anxiety regarding future jobs, embedding the stance of a person-as-scientist and sowing the seeds of reflective practice.     

One's Modus Ponens: Modality,Coherence and Logic

Recently, there has been a shift away from traditional truth‐conditional accounts of meaning towards non‐truth‐conditional ones, e.g., expressivism, relativism and certain forms of dynamic semantics. Fueling this trend is some puzzling behavior of modal discourse. One particularly surprising manifestation of such behavior is the alleged failure of some of the most entrenched classical rules of inference; viz., modus ponens and modus tollens. These revisionary, non‐truth‐conditional accounts tout these failures, and the alleged tension between the behavior of modal vocabulary and classical logic, as data in support of their departure from tradition, since the revisionary semantics invalidate some of these patterns. I, instead, offer a semantics for modality with the resources to accommodate the puzzling data while preserving classical logic, thus affirming the tradition that modals express ordinary truth‐conditional content. My account shows that the real lesson of the apparent counterexamples is not the one the critics draw, but rather one they missed: namely, that there are linguistic mechanisms, reflected in the logical form, that affect the interpretation of modal language in a context in a systematic and precise way, which have to be captured by any adequate semantic account of the interaction between discourse context and modal vocabulary. The semantic theory I develop specifies these mechanisms and captures precisely how they affect the interpretation of modals in a context, and do so in a way that both explains the appearance of the putative counterexamples and preserves classical logic.     

A Room with an Overview: the Effects of Schematic Processing,Mood and Exposure Duration on Memory Accuracy

Studies often posit the processing dichotomy of positive vs. negative affect. People in a negative mood tend to process information in a more systematic manner while those in a positive mood tend to adopt a more heuristic, schema-directed processing style. A 3 (mood: negative vs. neutral vs. positive) × 2 (exposure duration: one vs. five minutes) × 2 (schema-consistent vs. schema-inconsistent items) experimental design was employed in a real-life setting and, using the incidental learning paradigm, to test recognition memory for objects in a typical office. Following the affect-as-information approach, we hypothesized that induced positive mood would lead participants to engage in a more schema-directed processing leading to less accurate memory, while induced negative mood will lead to a more analytic and detailed processing, leading to higher memory accuracy and fewer memory errors. Results revealed a significant effect of duration, indicating that participants made more schema-consistent errors when their stay in the office was shorter. The significant interaction of mood and exposure duration suggests that effect of the exposure on memory accuracy applies to people in negative and neutral mood, while people in positive mood tend to maintain schema-directed processing style for longer period of time.     

Chess databases as a research vehicle in psychology: Modeling large data

The game of chess has often been used for psychological investigations, particularly in cognitive science. The clear-cut rules and well-defined environment of chess provide a model for investigations of basic cognitive processes, such as perception, memory, and problem solving, while the precise rating system for the measurement of skill has enabled investigations of individual differences and expertise-related effects. In the present study, we focus on another appealing feature of chess—namely, the large archive databases associated with the game. The German national chess database presented in this study represents a fruitful ground for the investigation of multiple longitudinal research questions, since it collects the data of over 130,000 players and spans over 25 years. The German chess database collects the data of all players, including hobby players, and all tournaments played. This results in a rich and complete collection of the skill, age, and activity of the whole population of chess players in Germany. The database therefore complements the commonly used expertise approach in cognitive science by opening up new possibilities for the investigation of multiple factors that underlie expertise and skill acquisition. Since large datasets are not common in psychology, their introduction also raises the question of optimal and efficient statistical analysis. We offer the database for download and illustrate how it can be used by providing concrete examples and a step-by-step tutorial using different statistical analyses on a range of topics, including skill development over the lifetime, birth cohort effects, effects of activity and inactivity on skill, and gender differences.     

Chest reconstructive surgeries in transmasculine youth: Experience from one pediatric center

Background: For many trans males, having chest reconstruction is a very important part of the transitioning process. Guidelines from WPATH and the Endocrine Society suggest 16 to 18 years old as an acceptable age for this surgical intervention. In clinical practice, the decision depends on factors such as a person's desires, insurance coverage, and availability of local surgical experts. We present data about chest reconstructive surgeries in transgender youth from a Pediatric Gender Management (GeM) clinic.

Methods: For this retrospective, observational study, data were collected from GeM clinic patients seen from 10/1/2011 to 1/31/2017. All subjects consented or assented to being included in an IRB-approved clinical database.

Results: Of 210 patients from our clinic, 167 consented to being added to an institutional review board–approved database and followed prospectively. The average age at the initial visit was 15.2 years (range, 4.7–20.9). Among consenting subjects, 55 were trans females, 108 were trans males, and four identified as nonbinary. Fourteen subjects had chest reconstruction with the mean age being 17.2 years (range, 13.4–19.7); three subjects were under age 16. For five subjects, including the youngest one, insurance paid for the procedure. All participants but one were receiving testosterone treatment. Per the surgeons' preferences, testosterone was usually not temporarily stopped prior to the procedure. Six subjects had the procedure done locally; others sought surgical care out of the town, state, or country. All subjects were very satisfied with the aesthetics of the surgical outcome. The self-reported complication rate was low. Many more GeM clinic patients wish to have breast/chest surgery but lack of insurance coverage makes the surgery cost prohibitive.

Conclusion: For many trans males, chest reconstructive surgery is an integral part of the transition process. Patients' age at the time of surgical procedure varies greatly; some have chest surgery before age 16. In the United States, chest reconstruction surgery is usually not covered by insurance. Therefore, many patients seeking surgical care are forced to pay out of pocket.     

Is pictorial perception robust? The effect of the observer vantage point on the perceived depth structure of linear-perspective images

Every image of a scene produced in accord with the rules of linear perspective has an associated projection centre. Only if observed from that position does the image provide the stimulus which is equivalent to the one provided by the original scene. According to the perspective-transformation hypothesis, observing the image from other vantage points should result in specific transformations of the structure of the conveyed scene, whereas according to the vantage-point compensation hypothesis it should have little effect. Geometrical analyses illustrating the transformation theory are presented. An experiment is reported to confront the two theories. The results provide little support for the compensation theory and are generally in accord with the transformation theory, but also show systematic deviations from it, possibly due to cue conflict and asymmetry of visual angles.     

Parenting, coparenting, and effortful control in preschoolers

This study investigated the relations among parenting, coparenting, and effortful control in preschoolers. The sample included 89 families with 2 parents and their firstborn 36-month-old children. Information was obtained by means of observation and parent-report questionnaires. In general, maternal parenting, paternal parenting, and coparenting were related to effortful control. Effortful control was more strongly predicted from parenting and coparenting when the same measurement method (observation or parent reports) was used. For both observation and parent reports, coparenting contributed to effortful control over and above maternal and paternal parenting. The results indicate the importance of adding indicators of triadic family processes to the study of parenting and young children's effortful control.     

Cultural diversity,migration and education

Migration is not a new phenomenon. However, recent data indicate that unprecedented numbers of people have experienced forced migration around the world with 51% under the age of 18 years. How can educational policies and practices respond sensitively to increasing cultural and migration-based diversity? The purpose of this special section that includes eight studies is to consider these issues more deeply. As a frame for the special section, we address the main question: What are promotive or protective factors for positive development of children and youth attending culturally diverse school contexts? In the collection of papers, these promotive and protective factors range from peers and families, to teachers, to organisational context and climate. With continued disruptions in children's lives due to a pandemic, climate change, war, conflict and poverty, migration will remain a pressing concern and will continue to transform the student populations in our classrooms and schools for the foreseeable future. The need to address how we can best provide students from diverse backgrounds equitable and supportive education, continues.